Do Good Design

Social enterprise, social entrepreneurs, community interest companies (CIC), fourth sector, charitable businesses — they’re all terms for businesses who care about more than profit.

For the most part, what makes a business a “social enterprise” is that where you put the money: in the hands of charitable causes rather than shareholders or owners or even employees.

Researching social enterprise hasn’t been easy, so I thought I’d share my list of resources for Scottish and British people interested in either starting their own or in buying goods and services from one.

Starting your own social enterprise

A one-person business can start a social enterprise: I’m going to convert Do Good Design into a social enterprise in the coming months. So can you — just decide on a salary for yourself, pick a non-profit you want to give your proceeds to, and you’re halfway there.

After that, if you’re in Scotland, head over to First Port. First Port offers help to people trying to start up, and as their name implies, they’re the first place to go.

If you’re in the Highlands and Islands, there’s also HISEZ: Highlands and Islands Social Enterprise Zone, which is where The Sorting Room is getting advice from in the form of a consultant. Our consultant, Clive Sheppard, is facilitating a workshop for us to define our objectives and activities, and generally move from idea to reality — including getting funding.

Get the legal structure sorted

Check out Community Interest Companies (CIC), a special legal structure just for social enterprises that the UK government recently created to make life easier. The CIC Regulator website has a FAQ section which can help you understand why choosing a CIC as your legal structure is a good option.

Building your skills

Learn “social accounting”, where you learn to attach a price tag to eco- and social factors in your business accounting.

Or take a course in Peer-Led Instruction at The Social Enterprise Academy, which offers courses and training for social enterprises in Scotland. They can also come to your location if you can pull together enough people.

Connect with local social entrepeneurs

Senscot seems to focus mainly on networking, and has a membership fee of £25. They have local networks of social entrepeneurs as well as a newsletter and profiles of social enterprises throughout Scotland.

There’s also the Social Enterprise Coalition for the UK, but to be honest, they seem to be mainly about lobbying government for more funding or attention. I called them for help early on, and they sent some materials, but it stopped there. They also run an annual SE event called Voice, with workshops and meetings.

Finally, there’s Social Enterprise Magazine, a fairly slick looking online magazine. Just found it so will investigate further.

Poor websites and disorganisation make information gathering hard

I’ve spent the last 6 months researching how to start a social enterprise, making calls and sending endless emails. Until we met with our consultant Clive — which happened through luck and knowing the right people — we struggled to make things happen.

As you can see from just my list for Scotland, there are a heap of organisations being funded to help social enterprises, and yet many of them are either invisible on the internet (never once found First Port or HISEZ until it was mentioned by someone else) or have very poor websites. I can’t count the error pages, outdated information, trouble signing up or faulty databases I’ve encountered.

So my advice is, persist until you find someone who’s a good fit with what you’re trying to do. There’s information and money available to start up and connect you with like-minded people. You’ve just got to find it.